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| Item ID | egyptian 1943 0226 vol 24 #20 a.tif |
| Title | DARK MUSINGS |
| Author | By EARL BROOKS |
| Description | CONCERNING MR. PICKENS |
| Original Publication Source | Daily Egyptian |
| Date | 1943 February 26 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 20 |
| Page(s) | 2 |
| Digital File Format | .TIF (Tagged Image Format) |
| Digital File Publisher | Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale |
| Rights Statement | All copyrights held by Southern Illinois University Carbondale. For permission to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise use this image, please contact the Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Phone: + 1 (618) 453-2516. Email: http://reftrack.lib.siu.edu/reft100.aspx?key=SCRCEmail&cllcid=SCRR |
| Collection | Daily Egyptian Diversity News Archive (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) |
| Transcript | DARK MUSINGS
By EARL BROOKS
CONCERNING MR. PICKENS
The whole theme of Brotherhood and the American ideal of democracy received a stab in the back last
week. While racialism and oppression were being denounced all over the country,
a most abominable example of it appeared on the floor of the House of Representatives. When Representative Joe Hendricks of Florida apologized to the House for calling Mr. William Pickens "Mr." he displayed a brand of putrid racialism from which the most rabid Hitlerite would probably recoil. Mr. Dickens was given the difficult job of selling war bonds to that segment of America's population which is not only denied freedom and full economic opportunity, but also the right to participate in the war effort on an equal footing with other citizens. In spite of obvious handicaps, Mr. Pickens has succeeded in convincing the Negro businessmen and their associates of the necessity for registering their patriotism in terms of "cold cash". To date, millions of dollars worth of bonds have been purchased by the Negro. This is to the evident satisfaction of the United States Treasury Department, and to the credit of the lone crusader, Dean Pickens.
In view of his great patriotic achievement, the traitorous Dies committee has accused Pickens of subversive activities. Unless the promotion and sale of war bonds falls into this category, I can see no reason for the humiliation visited upon this great Negro patient. Assaulted by the un-American Dies committee, insulted by Joe Hendricks, Pickens stands symbolic of the treatment of minorities in this country. Like many others, he believed the infamous wartime lies of brotherhood and freedom for all. Like many others, he believed in the war aims and democratic perspective for which men fight and die. he worked hard for those beliefs, and now because of them, he stands a victim of the blatantly vulgar attacks of the treacherous, pro-Nazi Dies committee.
During its disgraceful existence, the Dies committee has accomplished relatively nothing. Lynchers, torturers who wantonly attack Negro soldiers, Japanese agents, and Nazi spies all have escaped the net of this congressional committee. Only the antifascist, anti-Nazi, and the oppressed people are made the victims of their seditious attacks. In congress only recently, to the definite discredit to the whole nation, this putrid example of democracy in action was granted another two years or existence.
I want to believe in this war. I want to believe in the peace that must follow it. Yet, how can I; how can any of us who are oppressed believe in democracy when those who oppress us display so little belief in it themselves. We listen to speeches of rights, freedom, and brotherhood. Sometimes we even make those speeches ourselves, yet there is always a seed of doubt as to their integrity. When the smokes of the speeches of liberty and rights have blown away, we still find the Negro denied every right of political expression; the right of economic exploitation and oppression remains inviolate; education is blocked; and an attempt it made to allow ignorance to prevail as a meats of insuring the
pseudo-democratic regime.
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| Language | English |
| Type | Text |
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